{"id":2715,"date":"2013-08-30T08:20:11","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T02:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/?p=2715"},"modified":"2013-08-30T21:45:34","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T16:15:34","slug":"crag-dweller-talk-debut-album-touring-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/2013\/08\/30\/crag-dweller-talk-debut-album-touring-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Crag Dweller Talk Debut Album, Touring & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Avinash Mittur<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Over the last few years, the Pacific Northwest has been gaining a reputation for housing some of the coolest underground heavy metal in America. Hailing from Portland, Crag Dweller are one of the freshest additions to the new resurgence of heavy rock music. On Sunday August 25th, I had the chance to see these guys play a house show in Concord, a suburban city in the East Bay area of California and I was thoroughly impressed by their energetic, yet impossibly tight brand of brawny, muscular stoner rock. After the show had come to a close, I had the opportunity of chatting with the band-bassist\/vocalist Cliff Martin, guitarist\/vocalist Rich Vivarelli and drummer Travis Clowe. Enjoy the conversation below, and be sure to catch the band on tour this week with Ovvl.<\/p>\n

So you guys are on the road right now with Ovvl, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cliff: Yup, we\u2019re on tour for the next week, and we\u2019re heading down to Tijuana.<\/p>\n

Oh okay, will that be Crag Dweller\u2019s first time in Mexico? Is that your first international show as well?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cliff: Yeah, it\u2019ll be our first time ever in Mexico!<\/p>\n

Travis: It is our first international show, and we\u2019re also playing Vancouver, BC next month or maybe the month after. We\u2019re getting a couple stamps on our passports!<\/p>\n

So this tour is in support of your debut, \u2018Magic Dust\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rich: Yeah it is, but there are some new songs that we\u2019re playing actually.<\/p>\n

Travis: We\u2019re trying to make a new album really quick, that\u2019s kind of why we\u2019re workshopping all the new stuff on the road.<\/p>\n

\u2018Magic Dust\u2019 came out about a year and a half ago in early 2012<\/strong>. Are you completely happy with the way the album turned out? Anything you would like to go back and change or do differently now that you have the benefit of hindsight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cliff: Well, there\u2019s always something we want to go back and change, you know? It\u2019s never perfect.<\/p>\n

Travis: We did it in what, three days? So you can definitely hear the urgency on there, I think it shows and I kind of like it.<\/p>\n

Cliff: It definitely has a real warm and kind of a punk feel when it comes to the recording, kind of that old-fashioned analog feel in a way.<\/p>\n

Oh, so are you saying that you tracked to tape then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travis: Yup, we did reel-to-reel for the tracking, and then went DAT to digital.<\/p>\n

One thing I notice with power trios like Crag Dweller is that their albums are often a direct extension of how they sound live. Was this the case with you guys or would you say you\u2019re a different beast entirely in the studio?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cliff: I think \u2018Magic Dust\u2019 is a very accurate representation of how we sound live.<\/p>\n

Travis: We really pushed to do that actually.<\/p>\n

Cliff: We recorded all of the instrumentation live, then of course we did the vocals separately.<\/p>\n

Crag Dweller is from Portland, OR, but you guys are no stranger to the Bay Area.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cliff: Absolutely, and this run is my favorite time down here yet.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019ve been able to see a lot of the kinds of shows that we can offer underground bands: dive bars in SF, warehouses in Oakland and of course, these house shows all the way out in the East Bay. So what is Portland like when it comes to live underground heavy music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cliff: It\u2019s mostly in small dive bars, a few clubs\u2026 Not so many house shows anymore. Portland used to be famous for really great house shows.<\/p>\n

Travis: We try to support the underground music scene when we can. We try to do those really small shows often, and we try to host the house shows as well as playing them. We played with The Shrine from LA and Dirty Fences from New York at Rich\u2019s house, which is our practice space and it was awesome. It was just like, \u201cHoly shit, this is really happening?\u201d It was cool. We try to do that as much as we can, even though it\u2019s a little bit tricky.<\/p>\n

Cliff: We\u2019ve played with a lot of punk bands, and we\u2019ll do shows with the doom and stoner bands too. Somehow we kind of cross over.<\/p>\n

Travis: We kind of fit right in the middle of all of that, we\u2019ve even played with some black metal bands too.<\/p>\n

I know that Portland has been a hotbed for underground black metal lately.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travis: Yeah! A lot of noise and black metal. The whole Pacific Northwest really.<\/p>\n

Rich: You know, we even played with Black Breath too over in Bellingham.<\/p>\n

Travis: Yeah, Black Breath were pretty intense.<\/p>\n

Rich, I take it from your accent that Portland isn\u2019t your first home?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rich: Oh, I\u2019m French man. I came to Portland like six years ago. I was visiting a friend, and I just never ended up going back.<\/p>\n